chapter twenty-four

AUGUST 5, 2006

Winnipeg Free Press EDITORIAL – “Doubtful Dealing”

The first priority of police surrounding an abandoned farm house in Saskatchewan where career pedophile Peter Whitmore allegedly was holding a 14-year-old boy captive was to get the boy out safely. They accomplished that on Wednesday when the boy, who is from Winnipeg, was freed. Another 10-year-old boy from Saskatchewan had fled the farmhouse the previous day. Mr. Whitmore gave himself up.

The second priority of police seeking to arrest Mr. Whitmore should have been to protect every other child in Canada, now and in the future, from his notorious and well-documented tendencies. He has a record of the sexual abuse and abduction of children going back to 1993. Since then, Mr. Whitmore has been sentenced to a total of almost 10 years in prison for the abuse or abduction of seven children. He is now accused or suspected of the sexual abuse of children in three provinces. Even before these latest charges, it was known that he is an unreconstructed pedophile who has admitted that he needs the judicial system to stop him and to protect children. On this count, the RCMP bumbled badly.

After Mr. Whitmore’s arrest and his arraignment on charges of multiple sexual abuse against the two boys, it was reported that the RCMP had cut a deal with Mr. Whitmore. He would not be charged as a dangerous offender, the Crown would not seek a life sentence, and he would receive a private cell in a segregated area of the prison. In return he would plead guilty and avoid the cost of a lengthy trial and the ordeal that would present for his alleged victims when they had to testify.

The RCMP reportedly put this offer in writing. If that were all it was, that would not be binding on the prosecutors except in the sense that if the police cannot deliver on what they promise, they lose their credibility in negotiations with criminals.

Mr. Whitmore’s lawyer, Daniel Brodsky, however, says that Crown prosecutor Jeff Kalmakoff also signed the document, which leaves less wiggle room for the Crown. The question now is should Saskatchewan authorities try to wiggle out of it.

The question involves principle, practicality and politics, with the principle and the politics for once pretty well meshing. The principle is that the laws should be enforced as they were meant to be, convicted criminals getting the punishment they deserve – it is difficult to believe that Mr. Whitmore was not long ago declared a dangerous offender since he offended at every opportunity he had. The politics is that we have a federal government that claims it wants to get tough on crime and a population appalled by what has happened in this case.

The practical part is the tough part. If the deal is honoured, Mr. Whitmore avoids facing a life sentence or dangerous offender status. Many Canadians will be outraged, but the conviction is certain and the children are spared a trial of a different kind. He can still receive a lengthy sentence, and as much as 10 years of close supervision after the inevitable parole. There is a certain sense to that, except for this ultimate irony – by the time he is out of jail, his victims may have children of their own, vulnerable themselves to career pedophiles who are too readily released back into society.

•••••

AUGUST 8, 2006

Dan Brodsky was ready to pour some more fuel on the fire. With Saskatchewan justice officials still tight-lipped on what many had started calling the “Deal With The Devil,” Brodsky tried to press the issue by suggesting perhaps Whitmore shouldn’t go to prison at all.

“We know that pedophilia is a sickness. Well, you’re not supposed to put sick people in jail, or criminalize the mentally ill,” Brodsky said from his Toronto office.

He said his client was prepared to fight to be proven not guilty by reason of mental disorder – a move which would send Whitmore to a psychiatric hospital for an undetermined period of time.

“If you accept as a premise that this guy is sick in the head, why shouldn’t he have a better quality of life than a criminal in prison?” asked Brodsky.

Most Canadians could likely have suggested a few reasons. But Brodsky said those who just want Whitmore to suffer severe punishment are missing the point. He said it was highly probable Whitmore would remain in a mental-health facility for the rest of his life and never be released, considering there is no actual “cure” for pedophilia.

“Why should the public care if he’s got prison bars on his windows or is in a hospital if they know their child is protected from harm?” asked Brodsky.

As a federal prisoner, Whitmore would face possible violent backlash from other inmates, and most prisons don’t have resources to treat the sexual deviancy that has continually landed his client in legal difficult, said Brodsky.

“A guy like Peter Whitmore isn’t very high on the totem pole. Most of the other inmates have families and don’t like people who have harmed other people and their families (in a sexual way),” said Brodsky.

Not surprisingly, Brodsky’s suggested insanity defence wasn’t well received by the families of his most recent victims.

“Holy shit. You’ve got to be kidding me,” Al Baxter said upon hearing the news.

He was likely speaking for much of the country.

•••••

AUGUST 9, 2006

David Matas, a Winnipeg lawyer who works with the Beyond Borders child advocacy group, had heard and seen enough. Angered by Whitmore’s latest crimes and frustrated with the Canadian justice system, the well-respected Matas sat down and explained his four-point plan to protect other children from dangerous predators, submitted it for publication to the Winnipeg Free Press.

Canada is not doing enough to protect children from sexual abuse. That much seems clear from the Peter Whitmore saga. Whitmore, a chronic, convicted sex offender is accused of kidnapping two boys, a 14 year old from Winnipeg and a 10-year-old from rural Saskatchewan. The police negotiated his surrender in Kipling, Sask., last week.

There are at least four ways protection could be improved. One is raising the age of consent for sex with adults. Right now it is 14. It is chilling to realize, but Whitmore cannot be convicted with sexual abuse of the 14-year-old from Winnipeg unless it can be established either that Whitmore sexually exploited the child or that the child did not consent to sex.

The government of Canada has introduced legislation into Parliament to raise the age of consent from 14 to 16 with a close-in-age exemption for a partner who is less than five years older. That legislation needs to be enacted as soon as possible.

Second, the threshold for dangerous offender designation needs to be lowered. Dangerous offender designation means that an offender can be sentenced to life in prison not for what he has done, but for the danger he poses, what he will do.

Whitmore was never designated a dangerous offender because, although he had been convicted many times for sexual abuse of children and was an obvious danger, he had never met the threshold for that designation. The designation can be imposed only if a person has committed a serious personal injury offence.

None of the offences for which Peter Whitmore was convicted fit that description. When it comes to chronic sex offenders, the potential future danger combined with convictions of any sort relevant to the danger should be enough.

Third, dangerous child sex offenders should not be given passports. Whitmore had violated a supervision order in 2000, going to Mexico, where, according to media reports, he “cultivated relationships” with children. He was found with a notepad containing the names and ages of 13 children.

The Canadian Passport Order authorizes the government of Canada to refuse a passport for only one offence, the fraudulent use of a certificate of citizenship. The list needs to be expanded to include repeated sexual offences against children.

That same order allows revocation of a passport if the passport is used in committing a serious offence abroad. But a passport cannot be revoked simply because a person has committed child sexual abuse offences in Canada and is likely to do so abroad. Yet, that should be possible.

Fourth, Canada needs a publicly accessible sex offender registry. The B.C. police allowed Whitmore to visit Alberta for four days and even issued a press release he was going there. Whitmore stayed in Alberta beyond the authorized time. His court ordered supervision expired, in mid-June, while he was still there. A court date was set for the end of June to extend the supervision order. But Whitmore did not show up.

If the public in Alberta had known, through a publicly accessible sex offender registry, who Whitmore was, the public could have been after the police to get a court ruling to extend the supervision order before it expired. The police oversight would have been a good deal less likely to have happened.

Right now, there is a national sex offender registry maintained by the RCMP. But the information on the registry is available to police only and not to the public. Moreover, even for police, the registry is available only to investigate unsolved crimes of a sexual nature. The police in Alberta knew about Whitmore. But it was no thanks to the sex offender registry, which even they could not access, because at the time Whitmore was not a suspect in an unsolved sexual crime.

A sex offender registry can be too accessible, as the case of Stephen Marshall showed. Marshall, a Canadian from Cape Breton, looked up on the Internet the names and address of two sex offenders, Joseph Gray and William Elliott, on the Maine sex offender registry, went down to Maine and shot and killed them. When confronted by police on a bus in Boston in April this year, he shot and killed himself.

There are legitimate issues, once public sex offender registries are established, about who should be on the registry, how access is obtained and how much information should be available to the public about the offender. Only those who are truly a danger to the public should be on a publicly accessible registry, not every person who has committed a sexual offence. Public access should require some form of police screening for those who seek information about offenders, to prevent vigilantism. Information about the offender on the registry should be specific enough to prevent cases of mistaken identity.

It is easy to think of what, for a sex offender registry, might be too much. But what we have now nationally, a registry accessible only to police and only even for them for the purpose of investigating unsolved sex crimes, is far too little.

The Whitmore incident has made it as plain as day that Canada is not doing enough to protect children. We should learn from the drama to improve our protection.

•••••

A place that held so many happy family memories had been forever tarnished. And now the owner of the ramshackle farmhouse that served as a hideout for Peter Whitmore said the only option was to bring out the wrecking ball.

Don Toth, MLA for the Moosomin area, said it was time to level the dilapidated, two-storey home near Kipling – and not just because it was a house of horrors for a pair of kidnapped youths. He said the farmhouse had become an eyesore in recent years and a popular spot for local teens to gather and drink after dark.

“The only reason the house is still there is for sentimental reasons. But I’m thinking recently that maybe it’s time to push the thing down,” he said.

Geraldine Varjassy, who lives just one property over to the north, said demolishing her late husband’s childhood home is probably for the best.

“It gives us a different feeling when we drive by,” she said. “It’s hard to balance thinking about all the good times with the bad things that happened there.”

•••••

REGINA, SASKATCHEWAN

AUGUST 10, 2006

It was the answer everyone was waiting for. And Saskatchewan justice officials decided they wouldn’t drag out the suspense any longer.

Just moments after Whitmore’s second court appearance, the lead Crown attorney stopped outside the downtown courthouse to address the public.

There would be no deal. Whitmore would be taken to trial. He would be found guilty. And he would feel the full weight of the law come crashing down on him.

Prosecutor Anthony Gerein said that meant, for the first time, seeking a dangerous offender designation against Whitmore and hopefully having him put away for the rest of his life.

But what about the document given to Whitmore to coax him into surrendering?

“The Crown has never made a deal, and there is no deal with Mr. Whitmore,” a defiant Gerein told a throng of reporters.

Gerein said the RCMP “have honoured the terms of that letter” by making the recommendation to avoid a dangerous offender designation and life sentence.

“The Crown sees no basis to accept that recommendation. We believe there is a reasonable likelihood of conviction and upon conviction a reasonable likelihood he would be designated a dangerous offender,” said Gerein.

Gerein said police “should be commended” for the way they brought a peaceful resolution to the high-profile case.

Whitmore’s court appearance had been otherwise non-eventful. He was brought-in looking slightly dishevelled, his hair messy, his eyes baggy and a scowl on his face. He was wearing the same “Canada” sweatshirt he had on during his first court appearance a week earlier.

•••••

WHITEWOOD, SASKATCHEWAN

AUGUST 11, 2006

It was the family’s first – and only – interview, and it came during an emotional afternoon and evening filled with laughs and tears around a campfire. Larry and Paula Munroe, along with their three children, agreed to sit down with the Winnipeg Free Press to discuss what they’d been through.

Until the previous week, the only invaders these self-described ‘simple farm folks’ had to worry about were the coyotes and foxes trying to get at their barnyard animals. But then along came Whitmore, with a 14-year-old Winnipeg teen in tow, and a story that preyed on their trust and cost them their son and his innocence.

The freckle-faced Adam takes a reporter by the hand to proudly show him the greeting card he’d personally picked out for the Regina RCMP officer who helped rescue him.

“I made a wish. And you came true,” the 10-year-old recites with a sweet smile.

Paula, a strong and deeply protective woman, is once again near tears as he reads it aloud.

“It’s the card that makes Mommy cry,” she tells her son.

Larry – a gentle, kind-hearted soul – also admits to getting a lump in his throat.

Adam says he plans to send the simple but very powerful message to Const. Tim Schwartz, whose open arms were there to meet him as he sprinted to safety, finally free from Whitmore’s clutches.

After reading the card, Adam quickly returns to acting his age – playing with his toy robot and teasing his two sisters, aged nine and 12, how his “invention” – a coffee machine made out of a cardboard box, tape, foil and Styrofoam cups – is better than theirs.

They share a good-natured laugh and life, it would appear, is back to normal. But it is difficult to escape the reality of the family’s current situation for too long.

The family is reluctant to discuss specific details of the allegations against Whitmore but offer a few disturbing revelations.

Adam says he was given dog food, water and crackers to eat during the 48 hours he was held captive. He also says they were holed up inside the abandoned farmhouse the entire time, and he always believed he would escape.

“I told police that very first night he would try to run, that he wouldn’t fall prey to that scum,” Larry tells the reporter.

Fortunately, Pat Beaujot came along and stumbled across the hiding place.

“He’s a hero, and we are very, very grateful for Mr. Beaujot,” says Larry. The family has spoken with Beaujot by telephone and plan to have dinner with him soon to offer personal thanks.

“Now we have him,” Larry says, hugging Adam tightly. “You’re the centre of attention – but you’re our little world.”

Try as they might, there are daily disturbing reminders of what has happened. Adam begins to protest when Paula reminds him he has to take his medicine, which a doctor has prescribed as a precaution given the sexual assault charges against Whitmore.

“I don’t want to take my medicine,” he says softly. “How much longer?”

“Well, you have to take it 28 days. And this is nine. So how many more is that?” she asks.

“Uh, 19,” he replies, briefly putting his concerns aside to take praise for his quick math skills. “I was top three in my class last year,” Adam boasts, adding he’s looking forward to starting Grade 5 in a couple weeks. “I want to be a scientist,” he says.

“Devastating,” is how the boy later sums up his ordeal, which the Munroes say they now want to use as a springboard for political change. And they want other outraged Canadians to join them.

“My God, I don’t want anyone else to have to go through what we’re going through,” Larry says.

Earlier in the day he met face-to-face meeting with his local MP and has plans to meet with federal Justice Minister Vic Toews in the coming weeks.

Larry says the family will eventually give up their right to anonymity and fight for better monitoring and stiffer punishment of sex offenders in full public view.

“We want justice. Not just for us but for everyone out there. Our medical issues with (Adam) are our number 1 issue right now. But we plan on getting a grassroots movement going. We’ll take this anywhere we have to go,” he says.

The family was relieved the Crown prosecutor assigned to Whitmore’s case phoned them earlier in the week and asked for their input before announcing they would not cut a deal with Whitmore.

The family urged the Crown prosecutor to go to trial and seek the maximum penalty, even if it meant a long, drawn-out legal battle. And they simply scoff at Dan Brodsky’s suggestion Whitmore may try to be sent to a hospital instead of prison on the grounds he is mentally ill.

“We want to fight this. It doesn’t matter if (our son) has to testify. He’s already faced the worse he’s going to. He has to live this every day of his life,” Larry says.

“We’re not scared of Mr. Whitmore. If he thinks we’re going to back down he’s wrong. We’ll meet him in the courtroom. My boy is very strong. Much stronger than we are. (Whitmore) has no idea who he’s dealing with.”

The family realized they were dealing with a very complex issue that had rocked their world. “It’s peaceful out here,” Larry said while serving up hotdogs to his family and guest. “We live a quiet life.”

“We used to,” Paula says immediately.

They recall how Whitmore showed up on their sprawling, 360-acre property with a blown tire on his van, claiming the Winnipeg teen was his nephew and telling the family his wife had recently died and he was looking for work and property in the area.

“We think now he deliberately damaged that tire. It was a setup,” says Larry.

He shook his head as he discussed taking Whitmore to a local repair shop that evening while Kyle Mason stayed behind at the farm to play Adam – a move that would culminate in the fateful bike ride the following day.

The entire family is now undergoing counselling and working closely with victims’ services personnel in Yorkton, whom they describe as “wonderful.” They also praise the police for all their work and thank local residents – and the entire country – for the outpouring of support.

Cards and letters have been coming in from strangers across Canada, while others have chipped in with financial donations at the local bank – something the family wasn’t even aware was being done.

“You’ve got a lot of people who are thankful you’re home,” Larry tells his son, who looks up from playing with his two pet rats to give a smile.

“No rats at the dinner table,” Paula says firmly before everyone breaks into a laugh. She admits to being a little more on edge since her son returned home safely. “I’m like a mother bear now,” she says. “I don’t want this to change the way we are. But we haven’t been sleeping well. If I get my chores done, it’s a good day.”

For now, the focus is on feeling better. And fireworks.

A relative brought over more than $300 worth of fireworks, which the family set off in a spectacular celebration in honour of Adam’s first night home.

“It sounded like a shotgun going off,” Adam says with wide-eyed glee.

The family has saved one last item, a $40 sky-dancer which the Adam says he may set off on his 11th birthday next month.

“We’re saving it for a special day. I think I have a day in mind,” Larry says with a sheepish grin and acknowledgment of the long road still ahead.

“But I don’t know if we want to wait that long.”